In June of 1921, Beatrix Farrand began her work designing Robert and Mildred Bliss’s home in Georgetown. Writing in June of 1922, about preliminary plans, Farrand recognized in the property and her clients a garden of possibilities: “The Oaks offers opportunities for development on so many different lines that it is difficult to know which to emphasize most strongly in the beginning.” Farrand goes on to detail a vision that she would come to work on for the next twenty years.
The Garden Centennial recognizes a century of stewardship and preservation of the Dumbarton Oaks Gardens through celebrations and exhibits. We will explore the different ways the gardens and landscape as a work of art has been utilized, with thoughts on the next hundred years. Using digitally accessible materials, curatorial newsletters, and in-person exhibitions, the Garden Centennial commemorates one of the most beautiful gardens in the world.
This exhibition was curated by Gabriel Ziaukas, Postgraduate Curatorial Fellow for the Garden Centennial, with initial development by Calla Bai, Summer 2020 Intern with the Garden Archives Digitization Project.